Are Americans Really So Busy?

By

Daniel Akst

Jan 14, 2013 7:00 am ET

By now it’s an article of faith for most us that we Americans live in a state of chronic time famine. We’re like Alice and the Red Queen’s in “Through the Looking Glass,” running as fast as we can just to stay in place.

Or at least so we think. But John P. Robinson begs to differ. The University of Maryland sociologist has spent years studying how Americans spend their time, and holds that there’s little evidence the pace of daily life is speeding up.